Johannes Blaskowitz

(1883 - 1948)

Johannes Blaskowitz was born July 10, 1883, in Peterswalde
in the County of Wehlau, East Prussia.

A professional soldier of the old school, who served
in World War I, Blaskowitz rose rapidly under the Third Reich. In 1935,
he was promoted to Lieutenant-General and Commander of Defence District
II, Stettin. In 1938 he was appointed Field Commander of Army Group 3 (Dresden), and took
part in the invasion of Austria and Bohemia, leading the Third Army into the Sudetenland in March 1939.

Blaskowitz worked out the plan of attack for the invasion
of Poland and commanded
the Eighth Army there. On September 27, 1939, Blaskowitz received the
surrender of Warsaw and on October 22, 1939, he was made Military Governor of the German
occupying forces in Poland.

Blaskowitz gained notoriety for expressing his outrage
with the atrocities being committed against PolishJews behind army lines by Reinhard
Heydrich'sS.D. units.
He produced two detailed memoranda on their activities and those of
the Einsatzkommandos against both Jews and the Polish intellectual elite between November
1939 and February 1940,
which were addressed to Army Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal
Walter von Brauchitsch. They documented many instances of raping,
horsewhipping, murder and looting of Jewish and Polish shops, warning
that the SS “might
later turn against their own people in the same way.”

Hitler was reportedly infuriated by Blaskowitz's “childish attitude,”
and he was relieved of command. Nevertheless, he served later on many
fronts, never again questioning Hitler's policies. In 1944,
he was given command of Army Group under von
Rundstedt which was preparing to defend against the expected Allied
invasion in France.
Relieved of his command after the defeat in Lorraine, he was transferred
to the Netherlands in early 1945, where he
surrendered to the British. He committed suicide on February 5, 1948,
in Nuremberg prison, shortly before his trial as a minor war criminal
was due to begin. Fellow prisoners believed that he had been murdered
by SS men, but this has never been substantiated.